Foreword
A word is an element expressed in speech or writing which has
a consistent meaning as designated in a given society for ouremotions and thoughts. * In everyday life we routinely exchange
conversation for the reason that it conveys meaning. But at thesame time, once we leave a familiar place or situation, we may
experience the words we say suddenly feeling awkward, or infact not conveying meaning. A given society does not only referto a physical entity based on a country or region; it also exists inthe ﬁeld to which a person/thing belongs, in a much smaller unit,
and more.
In accordance with the objective of creating a new society where
TURN exist, TURN NOTE is an attempt to gather words to beable to act as the means for people of diﬀerent backgrounds tointeract, and to document and share them.
For this second publication, we re-read or listened again torecords of all the events, daily reports, email exchanges andsuch like from the past year, and collected a large number ofwords from them. The words contained in this book are mainly
words which I was actually on the receiving end of, or words
shared when I happened to be in the same space as someone
else, but I have also included quotes from exchanges in places
and situations when I was not present. Also on each page I haveincluded explanatory notes so that the reader can better imagine
the circumstances in which the words quoted were spoken.
The subtitle for the book in the ﬁrst year was Words fromTURN . For this second year, we have decided on Words on* Reference: Japanese Dictionary Daijirin, Sanseido

TURN . This is because the words we collected gave theimpression of being based on feelings, ideas and thoughtsthat went beyond subjective thinking, and which came fromtouching upon and having contact with something other than
the speaker/writer s own existence.
In the process of repeating a series of editorial tasks such as
reviewing each word, re-reading original material and searchingfor the right words to add, I learned about the wealth ofexperiences on TURN through words from the past year, andgot a real sense of the reality that TURN is gradually being
shaped by its many participants.
Of course, it goes without saying that there was no end of
exchanges aside from the words we've included: among
them I would like to acknowledge the words that made meaware of cautious and hidden attitudes, the words that bore
witness to situations that were diﬃcult to express in words,
and the existence of people who don t express in words.
Through these words I felt how TURN activities carry with them
individual realities behind the words expressed, and how thosewords shape our imagination towards each sphere of life. I
felt that TURN beginning to show even richer and extensive
development through collecting the diverse words of a varietyof people.
Riko Okuyama
TURN Coordinator
February, 2018

About TURN

TURN 2017
January

The FY2016 interim report session, which was brought people connected with
TURN together at Tokyo University of the Arts.

SOCIALLY INCLUSIVE ART PROJECT

T

U R N

TURN is an art project that creates encounters between andartistic expression by diverse people, transcending diﬀerencesin attributes and background, including disability, age, gender,
nationality, and living environment.
TURN consists of four programs: the Interactive Program, in which
artists make repeated visits to welfare facilities and communitiesof people requiring social support; TURN LAND, which createsalternative spaces for TURN activities to be put into daily practice;
TURN LAB, which examine TURN from an objective standpoint;
and TURN FES, an event that brings together TURN initiatives
from each region under one roof. Through these programs, which
are undertaken in collaboration with partners from both within
Japan and overseas, TURN aims to create a richer society withrelationships that respect the diverse individuality of each andevery person as they are.
Supervisor: Katsuhiko Hibino (Artist; Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts & Professor, Department ofIntermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts)
Project Director: Tsukasa Mori (Project Coordination Division Program Director, Arts Council Tokyo)

March

May

TURN FES 2 held

Taking place over 3 days focusing on Interaction, diverse types of interaction
were presented at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

Participated in NO LIMITS SPECIAL 2017 Ueno

TURN had a booth at NO LIMITS SPECIAL 2017 Ueno, the biggest event of

its kind in Japan for visitors to experience ﬁrsthand the magic of the Paralympic
Games, where it implemented a special program of hands-on visitor experiences.

June
AugustTURN Meeting No.1 held

TURN project members gathered under one roof for this year s kick-oﬀ event.

Revamped TURN website goes online

Included the new Timeline function (in Japanese) detailing various TURN events,
and carrying diary entries on the project's interaction process.

TURN FES 3 held

Taking place over 3 days under the theme of TURN Accessibility, numerous
programs were implemented simultaneously.

September

OctoberStart of TURN IN BIENALSUR exhibition and workshops

Artworks exhibited in a show and workshops held based on Interactive Programs
conducted in Buenos Aires and Lima.

TURN Meeting No. 2 TURN Review I held

TURN s aims were reconﬁrmed through guest presentations of an array of art
project and diversity case studies.

November

TURN Meeting No. 3 TURN Review II held

December

Launch of TURN LAND

Coordinator: Riko Okuyama (Arts Council Tokyo / Curator, Mizunoki Museum of Art, Kameoka)
Organized by: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundationfor History and Culture), The nonprofit organization Art’s Embrace

Interim Briefing Seeing, hearing, and speaking about
interaction in the TURN Project held

Participants draw up their visions for society under TURN on the themes of social
inclusion and social implementation.

The four facilities of Harmony, KOMONE FUKUSHIEN in Itabashi-ku, Atelier La
Mano and Kodomo Conference chosen as subject facilities for TURN LAND 2017.

TURN resulted from a joint exhibition held during 2014-2015 by dedicated Art Brut museums
in Japan and The Nippon Foundation called TURN – From Land to Sea (Exploring People s
Innate Capabilities). It began in 2015 as one of the Leading Project with a key role in the cultural
program for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Explanatory notes
This book is based on the following documents from TURN project (January-December 2017).

Daily report;

Daily reports kept by the project members during their interaction activities.
Transcribed data;

・Interim Brieﬁng Seeing, hearing, and speaking about interaction in the TURN project

The FY2016 interim report session, which was held at Tokyo University of the Arts on
January 14, 2017
・TURN FES 2
Talk sessions and other parts of the program that took place during the event at Tokyo
Metropolitan Art Museum on March 3-5, 2017
・TURN FES 3
Talk sessions and other parts of the program that took place during the event at Tokyo
Metropolitan Art Museum on August 18-20, 2017
・TURN Meeting
An open forum for sharing experiences of TURN and exchanging opinions. Held threetimes between June and November 2017 at Tokyo University of the Arts
Interview;

Interviews conducted with project members
Other;

・TURN in BIENALSUR

Interactions in the course of the Interactive Program, exhibition, and workshops held
between July and October 2017 as part of the ﬁrst International Contemporary Art
Biennial of South America BIENALSUR, in which TURN was invited to participate
・E-mail
E-mails exchanged in the course of the project.
This book is based on information current as of January 31, 2018.

that I spent at welfare facilities felt to me like time in which
they could be transformed into cultural facilities, because I

encountered values that I had never before appreciated andpreviously unknown experiences. Rather than art museums

alone thinking about the role of art museums, I believe that if
we broaden the boundaries of what we consider art museums
to be, a variety of places could, by extension, become art
museums or cultural facilities.

August 18, 2017
From TURN FES 3: Considering New Forms of Learning

A narrow line

Becoming art museums or cultural facilities

If one of the roles of cultural facilities is to be a place where
you can encounter values other than your own, then the time

While there are various kinds of disabilities, I thought that it
would be interesting to incorporate all the contrivances thatare even slightly relevant into a narrow line. The idea is that avariety of messages lie hidden within that narrow line.
July 18, 2017
From an e-mailMasataka Baba
Baba founded Open A in 2003. His diverse activities include
architectural design, city planning, and writing. He also runs the realestate media outlet Real Estate, which finds and presents real estatearound Japan from a fresh perspective.

Kat suhiko Hibino
TURN Supervisor. Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts & Professor,
Department of Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts. A shortstay experience at support facilities for people with disabilities
in 2014 triggered an interest in people’s innate abilities, which hesupervised into an art project in the form of TURN. He also serves
as director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu.

Welfare facilities seem more distant than Brazil. Those were the words of Hibino
just before his short stay (*a support system people with disabilities to spend short periods
staying at welfare facilities) at Mizunoki in 2014. It was a remark utterly characteristic of Hibino,
who likened his impact at the time to his encounters with art at museums. Speaking to Fumihiko
Sumitomo, who, like him, is both a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts and the director of anart museum, Hibino described his new outlook on cultural facilities, including art museums.

Inside the venue for TURN FES 3, we ran a single narrow line made from atimber stud along the wall that was on the right when visitors followed the directions around theexhibition. If you trace it with your right hand like using a handrail, you realize that the texture
that you can feel changes when you move into a different exhibition space. Baba’s modest
sense of curiosity, driven by a desire to somehow connect with all the things that lie within,became a sign symbolizing TURN FES 3.

a facility user nor a staff member, and I didn’t know what to dowith myself, so I was spending time in the Kodomo Shokudo.
But now I’ve somehow started helping to serve the food andeating and chatting with the children and their parents when

they ask whether I’m going to have a meal here today. WhenI say “natural,” I think it’s as though there’s something likean object that gives me an invisible connection to the place,through a combination of the people here gradually accepting
me and me accepting this environment. This might be what

Ms. Kondo meant when she said, “create a place for yourself”
when I first started visiting. I get the feeling that it’s somethingthat actually happens rather slowly.
March 9, 2017
From Diary report

Da isuke Nagaoka
Artist. He produces video works based on pencil drawings, along withexperimental drawings that capture the moment of creation. Recently,
he has been creating works on the theme The Sphere House. As partof TURN, he was involved with the Kodomo Conference, a network
assembled around the groups that preside over a Kodomo Shokudo
cafeteria for children, and also participated in TURN in BIENALSUR,
interacting with children in Buenos Aires who have developmental
disability.
––
Ms. Hiroko Kondo : Owner of a vegetable shop “Kimagure Yaoya
Dandan.” Participated in TURN since 2016 as a member of Kodomo
Conference.

In the Interactive Program, we want to make sure that we value both theprocess of the artist becoming aware of the appeal of the people who gather at the facility they
visit as part of the program, and the process of the artist themselves becoming familiar with thatfacility. “Becoming familiar with” is a very difficult expression to comprehend, as perceptions
doubtless differ from one artist to another and depending on the atmosphere and circumstances
at each of the places participating in the Interactive Program. On this occasion, Nagaoka likened
the change in the way he felt at the facility he visited to the presence of an “invisible object.”Hoping to get back to that cave again

Create a place for yourself

Today, I feel that my presence here is becoming natural. To
start with, I was in an ambiguous position, since I was neither

I went along in the direction where there was a sign, the one I
had a kind of feeling about, and for some reason the entranceof a cave appeared in the layer regarded as the “exhibitionroom” – which made me think that both were there. I walked

to the cave, since I really wanted to go to that way. Near theback of the cave there was something like a huge pool ofwater, and I wondered what it was. When I went to look for it,
I felt around and found something similar to a ping pong table.
At that point I was actually handed a ping pong ball, and I

played ping pong without being able to see anything. ThenI realized again that there was a cave layer appearing fromthe layer that was the exhibition room. Thinking that might

be a “sign,” I took a photo. When I started walking again, I
bumped into the wall of the actual exhibition room (laughs).

For a while after that I couldn’t shake off the notion that I waswalking inside the exhibition room. It turned into a situation
where I was feeling my way through the space as I walked,
sort of hoping I could get back to that cave again.
September 9, 2017
From interview

Har uka Kojin
As a key member of the artist collective【Mé】, she implements teambased artistic activities that emphasize cooperation by identifying
individual creativity. After touring two support facilities for the disabledlast year together with【Mé】director Kenji Minamigawa, she then took
part in TURN FES 3.

Kojin spent the three days of TURN FES 3 outfitted in an eye mask andearmuffs, with a Polaroid camera hanging from her neck. In other words, over that three-day
period she simply applied herself to the task of recording the “signs” that were there, without
seeing or hearing any of what took place at the venue. Of course, there was no preset definitionof “sign” either. After FES concluded, she spoke about this unique experience in which she wasconstantly searching, in both a physical and a mental sense.

you choose your clothes?” “What kind of color is ‘pink’ toyou?” “In what way do you think about outer space?” “WhenI talk with my eyes closed, the sounds I want to hear reallyreach my ears!” The questions came up one after another; theartists were excited and animated by their conversation with
Ms. Iwata. Why? Probably because of the history of “artistic
expression,” in which the sense of sight has been placed

above all else. We’re now at a juncture where we’re revisitingthat history. We’re excited by creative expression thatmobilizes all the senses instead of calling only upon “vision,”
which perceives things from a single direction.
September 3, 2017
From Daily report

A safe zone for them

Revisiting the history of expression“All the ‘seeing people” who came along felt afraid in thepitch dark cave, but to me, this was just daily life. “How do

Coming to an art museum makes people quite nervous, don’t
you think? Partly because it’s a space with nothing but whitewalls.
But what made an impression on me was that for thesepeople, who you feel are looked at every day by people
around them in their communities, an art museum is a place

where they are the ones doing the looking, rather than being
looked at, so it doesn’t create a sense of tension for them. In

fact, the discovery that art museums can become a safe zone

for them showed me a different facet of art museums, which I’d
only ever thought of as tense places divorced from everyday
things.

August 18, 2017
From TURN FES 3: Considering New Forms of Learning

F umihiko Sumitomo
Da isuke Yamashiro
Yamashiro applies video time concepts to various spaces andprojects, and, in the form of art, presents “ time” that can beexperienced only in a particular location. He is also an active memberof Nadegata Instant Party (consisting of Toru Nakazaki, Daisuke
Yamashiro, and Tomoko Noda). In TURN project, he previously carriedout a two-year Interactive Program in cooperation with Applause
Minami-Aoyama; and this year he launched Sensory Media Laboratory(SML), a project that revisits “senses and expression,” and started
SML’s research activities.
––
Mitsuko Iwata : Representative, Non-Profit Organization Tenyaku
Fureai Ehon; Production and lending braille picture books.

After taking part in a special exhibition that turned out to be the forerunner of
TURN, Yamashiro was engaged in a two-year Interactive Program. He has recently embarked
on research in the areas of visual information and picture books. He says that the starting
points for turning his attention to these topics were his own field of media art and the fact that
he is a father of two. The exchanges above are from a get-together following TURN FES 3, in
which Yamashiro launched his research. They gathered around Ms. Iwata, who cooperated inthis research.

Director, Arts Maebashi. Associate Professor, Graduate School of
Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Took up his current post
after working at the NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) and theMuseum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, among others. In 2016, heorganized Forest of Expression: Art as a Communal Act, an exhibition
focused on projects that take art into front-line welfare, education, andhealthcare settings.

In his dialogue with Hibino, Sumitomo spoke of his encounters with young
people with experience of social withdrawal or truancy in the exhibition of the Forest of
Expression: Art as a Communal Act organized by Arts Maebashi, the museum at which he is the
director. It helped us to imagine that art museums still have wide-ranging and hidden potential
and that approaches to art museums can be transformed.

so far created from within, and the instability that was now
unintentionally caused by others. An artist could be describedas someone who always creates something new in a newway, rather than pragmatically doing something according toexisting methods. But conversely, I found myself in a place
where I was unable to attempt this. So although to a certain
extent there was an element of control where I could be incharge, it was minimal. So after that, I decided to go alongwith whatever resulted from the circumstances.
September 18, 2017
From interview

What the artist can doSomething from the circumstances

Usually, there is something in me that seeks “instability.”
But there’s a big difference between the instability I have

I think the front line experience you get at the facilities isamazing. But although I admire the things that are invisible

to me as someone who isn’t a welfare worker, it’s because
I'm not in welfare that I have to approach things in a waythat can only be done by an artist from outside who is only
occasionally involved.

When I go to a welfare facility I’m always on the outside, andI become a layperson. But sometimes I can’t create anything

without that perspective. Sometimes the work needs elementsof the undefined, the insubstantial, and the indifferent. Whenyou enter the actual environment, you find out what you cando, and where you stand.
June 7, 2017
From Daily report

Sebastian Camacho Ramirez
Colombian-born artist living in Argentina who took part in TURN
in BIENALSUR. He conducted an Interactive Program at a special
needs school in Buenos Aires alongside children with developmental
disabilities, utilizing traditional Latin American “chaquira” beadwork.

A few days after the opening of the exhibition, we interviewed each artist
about their experience through an interpreter. Sebastian told us in a soft tone how different
this project had been for him from his usual work. By the end of the interviews, even though
he hadn’t yet evaluated the success of the project, the conclusion was that it had been an
unquestionably important experience.

E AT & ART TARO
Artist who develops food-related art projects. For TURN, he has
produced Yuhan (Dinner) Concierge, inspired by the dietary situationof many people with mental disabilities, and Food Control, a
meditation on dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing) amongst the elderly.
This year he began research into eating disorders.

EAT&ART TARO does not conduct interactions at one specific partner facility;
rather he creates material to present at TURN FES through a series of observations, one-off
interactions and interviews on themes of his choosing. In touching upon not only situations thattie into themes of interest to him at the time, but also upon the surroundings and backgroundto those situations, he tackles encounters with the hitherto unfamiliar everyday in a careful andthorough way which helps shape his personal response.

changes. What you might call the usual approach is difficult
when designing things that change. But change isn’t

something negative; it actually makes things interesting,
don’t you think? The principal concept in my design is how todesign something for this kind of situation.
June 11, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 1

Kensaku Kato
Graphic designer. Representative of the Laboratories design team.
He is involved in creative activities across a wide variety of realms,
including art, architecture, ideas, and fashion. He is responsible fordesigning TURN’s official website.

Taking charge of graphic design in the first and second year, and web designin the third, Kato is a designer who has continually provided indefatigable support for the
project that is hard to put into words. The day was the unveiling of the revamp of the official
website. Rather than designs that support the entrenchment of values for the purpose ofcomprehension, he devises designs that positively relish change and the unknown.

“Weaving” negates the need for violence

Designing things that change

In a project, you usually have an outline and a set concept,
and you design things in line with them, but TURN always

Trouble, boundaries, insularity and indifference become raw
materials, energy and possibilities that can be changed into

something new. Even plain, inconspicuous things transform indiverse ways according to the individual needs of each child.
In every interaction, the participants come to understandothers, share space, and communicate through gestures, eyecontact and movement. At this elementary school, it’s not
unusual for an insignificant remark to trigger a violent reaction.
But “weaving” encourages concentration and negates theneed for violence. And kindness is born in the words that areexchanged between participants.
Mid-July, 2017
From TURN in BIENALSUR Daily report

Henry Ortiz Tapia
A resident of Lima, Peru, Henry Ortiz Tapia is an artist and also an
instructor at the national art school. He participated in TURN in
BIENALSUR, carrying out an Interactive Program involving the grass
weaving technique “Shicra” together with elementary school children
in the Barrios Altos area of Lima.

Despite being a historic area that retains vestiges of the Inca Empire, theBarrios Altos section of Lima currently struggles with poverty and a serious decline in publicorder. It is said that Lima residents themselves rarely venture into this part of the city. The
environment surrounding the children who attend the local elementary school is by no means
easy; but in his journal, Henry Ortiz Tapia closely observes the mutual changes in reactions andrelationships that occur in the Interactive Program, which continues to bring Shicra weaving tostudents.

said that made an impression on me was that Mr. Usami’s
yarn spooling for TURN was doing the job of connecting thedyeing and the weaving work that we do at La Mano. This
perspective to me symbolized how a visit by an artist made us
notice what we in the field don’t usually notice or think about.
June 11, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 1

Kenji Takano
Director of Atelier La Mano. He makes things together with people

with disabilities at a 90-year old Japanese house in Machida. He has
participated in TURN from the first year of the project. As well as aseries of interactions with artist Yasuaki Igarashi, in 2017 he also
started work on TURN LAND.
––
Shuntaro Usami : An attendee with disabilities at Atelier La Mano
whose specialty is yarn spooling.

We hope that partner facilities don’t just take in artists passively, and that
artists’ perspectives will lead a new awareness and stimulation of the everyday support front
lines at facilities. Through the Interactive Program, Takano has frequently encountered Igarashi’s
perspectives, and the instances when he converted those perspectives into rich and meaningful
words. This has influenced Takano in his continued efforts to improve daily life at La Mano.

People Are Already Colorful

Noticing things through a visit by an artist

TURN was an opportunity for us to notice things we ourselves
never noticed or thought about. One of the things Igarashi

I posit that art does not make society colorful because
people are already colorful. Art stimulates new ways to makethe colors that are already there more visible. Art cannot
be implemented into society because it is already there.

Creativity already exists in people’s lives, they just need tofind fruitful ways to pull it out into the open.
November 19, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 3

James Jack
From the USA. He undertakes creative activities that have a deep
connection to society and the environment. Having taken part in theInteractive Program with Harmony for two years since becoming
involved in TURN in 2015, this year he is undertaking research aspart of TURN LAB to provide an objective insight into TURN.

This year’s TURN has started off with the question, “Can art or TURN be
implemented into society?” In response to this question, James Jack observed TURN activities
as part of the TURN LAB research program and held an interim briefing about the content of
his research. The term “ 実装 ” ( jisso, translated into English as implementation) means a way of
inserting a new function that did not previously exist. He observed that what TURN aims to do
is to render visible something that is already there.

threads, so she decided to tap into that individuality by suchmeans as using thick yarn for those who found it difficult touse fine yarn, and making a stand for the children who foundit hard to hold onto the yarn with one hand while weaving, sothat they could use both hands to weave. In some respects,
Alejandra was an artisan, but a kind of switch that made her
think about the process of weaving itself was somewhat offlicked and a completely different perspective on the world is
now spreading throughout Alejandra’s outlook as an artist.
August 18, 2017
From TURN FES 3: Pre-departure Talk before starting TURN in BIENALSUR

Katsuhiko Hibino
TURN Supervisor. Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts & Professor,
Department of Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts. A shortstay experience at a support facility for people with disabilities in2014 triggered an interest in people’s innate abilities, which hesupervised into an art project in the form of TURN. He also serves as
director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu.
––
Alejandra Mizrahi: Artist resident in Argentina who participated in
TURN in BIENALSUR.

Wrong guesses with flexibility

Switch is turned on

She noticed that when people weave, there is an individuality
about the way in which they feed the weft through the warp

The “correctness/factualness” that goes along with“perfection” tends to get in the way. If you try to be perfect,
you have to exclude a lot. On the reverse side of a situation
where something is excluded, there’s pressure to aim for

perfection and correctness. I personally feel that states ofimperfection and immaturity are interesting. That’s where I get
a sense of possibility. I value the things that always turn out
a certain way no matter what I do. I try to create somethingas yet unseen, working through a succession of wrong

guesses, in a state of flexibility. To give it a tidy name, it’s“open-mindedness.” I’m often asked, “What are you trying
to express?” I couldn’t care less about stuff like that. I dowhat I do, not because I’m trying to express something, but
because I don’t know. I reach towards something that inspires
my interest and curiosity, and I try to touch and connect
with it. To me, it’s that activity that matters. Repeating theprocess again and again brings about completely unexpected
situations, which in turn give rise to a chain of diverse
connections.
October 8, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 2

Hir oshi Fuji
Artist. Vice-president & Professor at Akita University of Art. Witha focus on community-based creative activity, Fuji carries out onsite dialogue and community experiments throughout Japan. He
appeared as a guest speaker at TURN Meeting No. 2.

South America still has hardly any art projects engaging people with disabilities.
Accordingly, Interactive Program with local artists require exploration of the question of how
to unravel the relationship between teaching and being taught. Alejandra Mizrahi specializes inembroidery skills, so her approach to dealing with these autistic people was reminiscent of thatof a teacher or artisan. However, in his evaluation, Hibino did not overlook the change in theirrelationship that arose in the ongoing exploration that took place during the interaction process.

When we go to a site with no “art” connection, we're inevitably confronted
with the question, “Why is art needed here?” This is the case even when we replace “art” with
TURN. Just when we were searching for the words that could answer that question effectively,
Fuji's comments at the TURN Meeting in October gave us valuable suggestions about thereasons for the necessity of art.

Gakuen? What can they inspire us to create and express
going forward? I certainly don’t have anything resemblinganswers to these questions…. They led me to come up witha project that would provide an opportunity to explore such

topics with students of our school. We got to the stage whenI began to feel that while fashion basically focuses on “dress,”the various avenues of communication it produces and its mixof perspectives could create a spatiality that would turn ourvalues upside down: we had come to a time when our values
are thrown into the fluid world. Experiencing feelings likethese might well be the most important part of learning.
September 11, 2017
From Daily report

Yoshi kazu Yamagata
Fashion designer, launched his brand “writtenafterwards” in 2007.
For TURN FES 3, “coconogacco” (Yamagata’s fashion design schoolwith an experimental focus) teamed up with SHOBU Gakuen, afacility for people with developmental difficulties, to create a learningspace, and also held a review session.

Yoshikazu Yamagata and SHOBU Gakuen. As somebody familiar with thebranch of welfare that deals in creative activities, I would call this a match made in heaven.
In engaging with TURN however, they wanted to surprise people with the fact that we would
mutually get to know the hitherto unfamiliar of each other's fields. What Yamagata brought tothe table at TURN FES 3 was a large body of art and a whole lot of students from his fashion
school.

You feel safe if you can touch something

Turns values upside-down

What does “differences” really mean in today’s society ?
For we students of fashion, what can we learn from SHOBU

Initially, I was thinking about large signs with strongly
contrasting visuals, but as a designer who creates spaces,

I was reluctant to sacrifice the spatial experience of people
who can see.

So then I wondered if there might not be a sign scheme in a
totally different dimension.

When I’m somewhere dark or looking for stairs, I always place
my hand against the wall as I move. In the darkness, I always

feel relieved if one touches someone else, or holds hands withthem, or grasps their clothing. Thinking, “We feel safe if we
can touch something,” I decided there and then to turn that
into a sign scheme.

August 20, 2017
From TURN FES 3: Accessibility Meeting

Masataka Baba
Baba founded Open A in 2003. His diverse activities include
architectural design, city planning, and writing. He also runs the realestate media outlet Real Estate, which finds and presents real estatearound Japan from a fresh perspective.

He has a longstanding visual impairment that gradually narrows the fieldof vision. He says that his condition has progressed so far that he currently has no central
vision and only the faint edges of things remain. Speaking at the talk session looking back onaccessibility, which took place on the final day of TURN FES 3, he described the process that
led him to propose the sign scheme in the context of his own disability, without diminishing his
expertise as an architect.

think about what the meaning of dancing actually is. That’s
because their movements are already a dance there, so
nobody regarded my dancing as dance, and they realized,“You actually move like that normally.”

March 4, 2017
From TURN FES 2 Talk session

K aiji Mor iyama
Dancer and choreographer. After being hailed as “One of the mosttalented dancers at this year’s Fringe” for his performance at the2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he began to direct, choreograph,and perform his own dance works, attracting attention with his
unique world of expression. In 2017, he choreographed and directed
SLOW MOVEMENT The Eternal Symphony 2nd mov.

Despite his busy schedule, which covers a wide range of activities in suchfields as dance, theater, and film, Moriyama managed to find time in between for TURN, which
he positioned more on the private side. In the first year, Moriyama visited Mizunoki, Creative
Support Let’s, and Kyosaren Recycled Bottle Washing Center, using dance as communication
with the people with disabilities who live, visit, or work at those three facilities.

Creating and receiving expression

Already a dance is there

The movements of all the facility users were even morecharming than those of professional dancers, so it made me

I see TURN LAND as something capable of adaptable creative
response within society. I think it’s interesting to be able toexperiment and explore in the moment; not just with regard
to creating expression, but also with regard to being on thereceiving end of creative expression, and thinking about theconnection between creating and receiving expression.
June 11, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 1

Kageki Asakura
Member of staff at Shure University, which has been part of the
TURN project since 2015. For many years he has provided learning
support activities for young people with life challenges such as
hikikomori social withdrawal and non-attendance at school.

When you incorporate art into your activities, there is a tendency to pay
attention to the creator or the creation itself. However, when creative expression is produced, it
triggers numerous interrelationships. Asakura wants more importance placed on the existenceof the recipient of the creative experience, precisely because Asakura, as one of those
recipients himself, is what he terms “the party who encounters the artist” and therefore could
be said to have more awareness.

towards us and from behind us. It’s great to be outside. Mr.
Kato wanted to hold the fishing rod. He tends to hold things

very tightly, so Mr. Okuda held his fingers to relax them, thenopened up his palm, and placed the rod against it. He thennaturally grasped the rod after that. This, too, is a sight that I’ve
seen for the first time.
May 31, 2017
From Daily report

Kentaro Onishi
Dancer, performer. Onishi has been participating in TURN since2016 and carries out Interactive Program at KOMONE FUKUSHIEN.
His continued activities include outdoor walks in which participants
fly Mirairai – cut-out figures of themselves that are made by others.
––
Mr.Kato: KOMONE FUKUSHIEN facility user
Mr. Okuda: KOMONE FUKUSHIEN staff member

An island is a good metaphor

A sight I’ve seen the first time

When we arrived at the park that was our destination, awonderful wind was blowing. It felt very pleasant as it blew

A friend who crossed the Pacific in a canoe told me thatspotting an island on the horizon is a really big deal. It has

water, plants, and soil — all things that we take for granted
when we’re on solid ground, but which seem miraculous

when you’re out at sea. Whether you’re an artist, a facility
user, or someone who visits after just chancing upon it, it’sreally amazing to find an island on which you can land. I
thought that an island was a good metaphor. There’re proper

immigration control systems for people who arrive placesby airplane, but if you make the journey by sea, there isn’tmuch at all. You can cross borders quite freely and call at
different ports as you choose. Although it’s run as a welfare

facility, it’s like an island, or cove, or harbor, where a varietyof people shelter or land and interact with the people there.
As I listen, I think that LAND is a good concept.
August 19, 2017
From TURN FES 3: Opening up TURN LAND

Yoshiaki N ishimura
Planning Director, working style researcher. After starting out inthe field of architecture, he became involved in all kinds of design
projects, including designing websites and media for public spaces.
Through his teaching, workshops, and research on working styles,
he has recently taken on the role of advisor to small businesses,organizations, and communities.

Many people with major intellectual and physical disabilities —what are called
severe and multiple disabilities — use KOMONE FUKUSHIEN. Because of the nature of his
disabilities, Mr. Kato has the process of holding something is broken down into multiple steps
through to completion. And one imagines that the actions of the disabled person when grasping
an object and the support worker’s actions when providing assistance seemed like a dance forOnishi.

TURN LAND functioned like a cultural facility that welcomed a diverse array ofpeople as they wandered in and out. No matter how much we tried to plan, there was always
an ongoing process of trial and error as we worked out how to give physical shape to our ideas.
On this particular day, the highly evocative image of TURN LAND described by Nishimura who
participated in TURN FES 3 as a talk guest untangled our situations, which were intermingledwith concern and anxiety, and gently pushed us forward.

issue that we’ll continue to share. As soon as one problem
is solved, another one comes up. These are truly the issues

that people engaged in art have to deal with on a daily basis.
But they’re not the problems of just one person; I think these
problems are shared by all the people involved in TURN, or
people engaged in art in some way. We value reports about
the deep-rootedness, so to speak, or the importance ofproblems related to shared issues. Therefore, being able toshare candid comments like “It’s really tough” may in one

sense mean that the interaction is becoming more profound.
June 11, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 1

Tsukasa Mor i
Project Coordination Division Program Director, Arts Council Tokyo.
As Project Director, Mori is the driving force behind TURN, which isan element of the Tokyo 2020 Cultural Olympiad.

A deeper place than “can” or “can’t”

Another problem comes up“We’ve incorporated art into our activities, but it's tougher
than we thought.” This kind of candid comment points out an

Most of the important things in life exist in a deeper placethan “can” or “can’t.” In that short period of time, I became

fully aware that the important part of our interaction withother people isn't whether or not we can do something. And

there were many times when I felt keenly that to get along
even though one “can’t” do something is to be a person who

exceptionally “can” do something. At the same time, I realizedthat people who are considered capable of doing somethingalso abound in things they can’t do. When interacting withpeople with disabilities and the people in their lives, there
were painful moments when I heard a voice, or more like a

shout, that seemed to say, “You able-bodied people always

abandon us.” I have little doubt that, in the course of our long
history and our experiences, there have been many instances
when we’ve unconsciously caused pain. Even in my own
mind, there may be discriminatory ideas and prejudices that
I’m still unaware of.
September 7, 2017
From Daily report

E mi Tomizuka
Art director, stage director and choreographer, performer, illustrator.
Nickname: Chori. She has been a TURN participant since its very
first year and at TURN FES 3, she presented the performance
artwork A Square of Light, which featured communication withoutwords.

An issue related to program continuation was brought up in a straightforward
way by a welfare facility staff member when we were about to start the third year of theInteractive Program. Hibino, the supervisor of TURN, speaks about his dream of keeping thepace and the level of enthusiasm high as we continue to develop the program. The coordinator,
Okuyama, devotes herself to listen to facility staff and artists. And Mori, the project director,
works to capture the substance of the questions posed and provide answers, rather than letting
ideas end as mere dreams or becoming disheartened by reality.

In TURN FES 3, in addition to presenting the results of the Interactive Program,
we also introduced several original programs. One of these, A Square of Light, is a special
program made just for that three-day period. The subtleties and shades of meaning drawn
from various encounters and connections that Tomizuka has experienced thus far are situatedin the background of this program, which illustrates the importance of interaction.

I got the feeling she was doing it for me. When I think about
the moments I found TURN interesting, I remembered several
times when TURN felt like things sort of surfaced naturally
and connected. Kojin neatly refers to that image as “thecave.” I realized that ultimately just being in the same place
was enough for us to really communicate.
September 9, 2017
From interview

Ken ji Minamigawa
As a member of the artist collective【 Mé】, he implements teambased artistic activities that emphasize cooperation by identifying
individual creativity. After touring two support facilities for the people
with disabilities last year, he then took part in TURN FES 3.

The cameraman

Being in the same place

Listening to our member artist Kojin, although I wasn't able toput into words what I myself thought about the things I saw,

The artist and facility user. The artist and facility staff.
Interactions in each community between the “individual”

from “outside” and the “individual” from “inside” appear
to be completely different, but each “individual” is working

towards a temporarily-determined end goal. What both havein common is that their interaction in the community is not
something based on the “public” position or title of “artist”
or “user” (or facility staff); it's a relationship originating intheir “individual” status. The question here then, is whether
a cameraman constantly toting a camera is a “public” or“individual” presence.
March 3, 2017
From TURN FES 2

H iroshi Tamura
Director and writer at film production company RAKUDA STUDIO.
He has been involved in TURN from year one, filming activities for
the Interactive Program, TURN FES and TURN LAND. From this year,
he has been working on turning his footage into a film.

After the close of TURN FES 3, I headed to Saitama Prefecture where【Mé】has its studio to do an interview. I was surprised to find that his own visual and auralexperiences during TURN FES 3 working next to Kojin, and the “sign” of sound and visionthat she perceived (having decided to disconnect and stop relying on her ears and eyes) had
produced some common artistic images.

More than a few people at facilities on the Interactive Program hesitate to maketheir disabilities or minority status public, which no doubt creates a difficult working environment
for Tamura, who has been involved as cameraman since the project's first year. Despite this, thewritten statements posted next to his documentary footage of the Interactive Program shown at
TURN FES 2 showed awareness of the way he engaged personally, and spoke volumes about
his positive attitude to being the lensman responsible for capturing TURN on film.

expressing something even if they don’t try to. We would liketo explore ways to retrieve this “something that they end up

expressing” and to open ourselves up to a kind of “expression
without self-awareness.”
March 4, 2017
From TURN FES 2 Talk Session

Tsukasa Mori
Project Coordination Division Program Director, Arts Council Tokyo.

As Project Director, Mori is the driving force behind TURN, which isan element of the Tokyo 2020 Cultural Olympiad.

This comment was made in the context of a dialogue with the dancer Kaiji
Moriyama. Moriyama enhances to the maximum degree all the workings of human beings, including
their spiritual nature, actualizing them in the stage space in the form of creative expression. So can
we say that the three videos documenting interactions that took place during his visits to welfare
facilities --the first endeavor of this kind-- are expressive works? In TURN, this sort of hard-to-define
event or happening occurs quite frequently. Mori spoke about this TURN-style expression while
watching, in the videos, Moriyama dancing in a space that differs from his usual environment.

See things from a different perspective

A kind of “expression without self-awareness”

As Hibino often says, human beings are creatures who feelthe need to express something, and as a result, they end up

I had a chance to talk with a psychologist who works in Lima.
He is very interested in TURN, and he asked me about someof the children who take part in the Interactive Program.
Actually, one of his comments troubled me a little. He said
that if there are problems, a realistic way to deal with themis to anticipate the causes. But now I’ve come to see thingsfrom a different perspective.
Mid-July, 2017
From TURN in BIENALSUR Daily report

Henr y Or tiz Tapia
A resident of Lima, Peru, Henry Ortiz Tapia is an artist and also an
instructor at the national art school. He participated in TURN in
BIENALSUR, carrying out an Interactive Program involving the grass
weaving technique “Shicra” together with elementary school children
in the Barrios Altos area of Lima.

In the specializations of people engaged in support activities, including
psychology and social welfare, it is essential to analyze the causes and causal relationships ofobserved phenomena. There are times, however, when that approach tends to make prematureassumptions about another person’s situation. I think this was an interesting episode in which
Henry, as an artist, expressed his discomfort with that way of relating. Though the “different
perspective” he referred to was not explained, I have a feeling that this perspective is one of thereasons why TURN has to be an art program.

see, but which Ryo and Takeshi could clearly feel. Manyof the users of Let’s have difficulty following with changes

in their living environment. Even changes that I can handle
without really noticing them — moment-by-moment changes
in temperature, humidity, wind, light, noise, and the texturesof walls and floors, for example — can be the source of
unbearable stress for them. I think that the sensors in their

Enjoying

There was a comfort zone

What I thought at the time was that, in the venue for TURN
FES 3, there was a kind of comfort zone, which I couldn’t

・Enjoy yourself, enjoy things that happen,
without overly compartmentalizing things
・Don’t work against the clock,you can take it at your own pace
・Enjoy things that happen by chance・There are no rules, don’t set too many boundaries.
Ensure that you can get a view of the overall picture

bodies must be far more sensitive than my own to be able todetect those changes. Using these sensors, Ryo and Takeshi

August 19, 2017

TURN FES 3 or which just happened to arise naturally there.
I think that the presence of that comfort zone there at the

A k i Kubota

might have found a comfort zone intentionally prepared forvenue was very important for them.
September 1, 2017
From Daily report

From an e-mailHelps out with TURN as project member. At TURN FES 3, she workedon the program Walking on the Wind — Climbing in the Sky producedby Kentaro Onishi + KOMONE FUKUSHIEN. She enjoys drinking iced
coffee with everyone at the KOMONE FUKUSHIEN café.

Tengyo Kura
Defining his lifestyle as “vagabond,” Tengyo uses teaching activities
as a base for repeated perambulations and periods of residence in avariety of countries and regions, producing photo stories inspired byhis experiences.
––
Ryo: Ryo Ota. Authorized Non-Profit Organization Creative Support
Let’s facility user.
Takeshi: Takeshi Kubota. Creative Support Let’s facility user.

At TURN FES 3, Tengyo Kura took charge of a program in which he brought
facility users from Creative Support Let’s on a journey to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in
Ueno all the way from Hamamatsu where they live. Of course, there were some ups and downs
along the way, but they arrived safely on the first day of TURN FES 3. Later on, he reflected
that, through them, he had discovered a comfort zone in the form of a crucial “something”
present at the festival venue during the time that he spent with them there after their arrival.

This is from an e-mail exchange between Kubota, TURN project member who
worked on the interactive performance Walking on the Wind — Climbing in the Sky at TURN FES
3, and Onishi, the artist who planned it, reflecting on their experiences so far at the end of thefestival’s second day. By trial and error, they will continue to explore what kind of place they cancreate with their partners —KOMONE FUKUSHIEN facility users— and their supporters (volunteer
staff).

into a form that I as a deaf person could see or touch. What I
found interesting was the forms of expression that sought toconvey not just sounds but behavior and feelings.
September 20, 2017
From TURN FES 3: Accessibility Meeting

Er i I shi kawa
General Secretariat of Non-Profit Organization Theatre Accessibility
network. Led by its hearing-impaired founders, this NPO implements
activities to support and promote the enjoyment of performing arts
by audience members with disabilities. This NPO is in charge ofaccessibility coordination at TURN’s annual events.

Questions and queries arise

Attempts to convey to me

I did a Tour program in TURN FES 3 where I asked everyone
to gather all the various sounds of the venue, and turn them

Can art play a role or function in society? How will art
engage with our current social problems? Can it engage withthem? Does it have to engage with them? If it does engage
with them, how should it do so? And what information do
the people involved in this process need? How should we
cultivate it? How should we evaluate it...etc., etc. A chainof interlinked problems and questions emerges. But I thinkperhaps that questions and queries arise because they areneeded.
November 19, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 3

K a t su hi k o H i bin o
TURN Supervisor. Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts & Professor,
Department of Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts. A shortstay experience at support facilities for people with disabilities in 2014
triggered an interest in people’s innate abilities, which he supervised
into an art project in the form of TURN. He also serves as director of
the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu.

For TURN FES 3, as an exercise in accessibility services incorporating various
human assistance and cooperation, we planned several Tour Programs to help people enjoy
live performances. One of these was a tour with Ishikawa. At the Accessibility Meeting with
Masataka Baba on the last day, we took a look back at what happened during the tour.

Since embarking on TURN, there has been an endless list of issues andnegative feedback from both within the project and outside, to the effect that the outline ofthis project is hard to grasp. This particular day was no different, with researchers invited toparticipate as a guest suggesting that there might be traps that projects tend to fall into andsubtle phenomena that the project was leaving behind. Hibino described one approach toconfronting this ceaseless stream of issues.

disabilities. You can find mentally-troubled people amongst
facility volunteers and visitors as well as users. Those whom
we must support, those for whom we must play our part are
not only facility users with claimant certification. I always

stay conscious of this in my work. As mental disabilities, inparticular, are disabilities we cannot see, I think it’s incredibly

important to reach out to people beyond the registered facility
users.

August 19, 2017
From TURN FES 3 : Opening up TURN LAND

Katsunor i Shin zawa
Head of Harmony, a support facility for the people with disabilities
in Setagaya, also known for “Delusion, Auditory hallucination Karuta”
playing card tournaments. His mission is to create an environment
where users can display their individuality without fear.

TURN LAND started in earnest this year. Plans are underway to launch a newprogram featuring functions going beyond those of just a conventional welfare service provider,chiefly at facilities where TURN interactions are conducted. In view of this, we held a related
talk session at the TURN FES 3 venue. Shinzawa explained delicately and clearly why it wasnecessary to make welfare facilities accessible through the TURN LAND initiative.

It’s okay to have interests that don’t change

Not only facility users

I work as an advocate of welfare services for the people
with disabilities, but actually, I don’t just target people withUp to that time, I had felt that the things we call interest andpreference were accompanied by certain changes. But when
I observed this scene, I came to feel that it was okay to haveinterests that don’t change. The reason is that, in watching
this person as he continued to slowly and carefully wave theMirairai, I noticed that he had a completely unclouded facial
expression.

June 7, 2017
From Daily report

Ken taro Onishi
Dancer, performer. Onishi has been participating in TURN since 2016
and carries out an Interactive Program with KOMONE FUKUSHIEN.
His continued activities include outdoor walks in which participants fly
Mirairai -cut-out figures of themselves that are made by others.

It’s not unusual for the Interactive Program daily reports written and submitted
by artists to be texts that are filled with reflective comments. Artists, too, try to sensitively
capture the quality and feeling of events and occurrences in the interaction process and keepthem fresh in their minds.

Is it enough for us to merely put the elderly into facilities andsee that they lead as busy and as cheerful a life as possible?
Shouldn’t we all be more visible and active in society, andshouldn’t we all be more concerned about the fact that thisisn’t happening? I think art might help to express these
unspoken feelings.
June 11, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 1

Taeko Ooi
President of Non-Profit Organization Momonokai, which operates
the “Momosan fureai no Ie” day service for the elderly using spareschoolrooms, and the “Kagayaki-tei” community space and canteen.
Momonokai became a partner facility of TURN this year.

More and more welfare facilities are considering incorporating creative
activities into their programs. But art brings more than pleasure. At TURN Meeting No. 1, weconsciously fielded the opinions of our partner facilities. Something like the bursting cries fromthe heart that Ooi spoke about with such feeling could incentivize those facilities that haveartistic aspirations.

Creating situations that put art into practiceSociety should be more concerned

In our society longevity has almost become a byword foruselessness, and nobody seems to know what to do about it.

By and large, art often goes no further than concepts. But
TURN actually creates situations that put it into practice.
Today’s opening was absolutely wonderful.
September 18, 2017

At the opening reception for TURN in BIENALSUR

Marlise Jozami
One of the executive directors of the first International Biennial ofContemporary Art of South America, BIENALSUR, which was based inArgentina and held events in more than 30 cities both within Argentina
and in other countries.

As the curtain went up on the exhibition, our feelings were an amalgam ofhope and anxiety, wondering what kind of reaction the rest of the world would have to TURN,
which emphasizes diversity and relational processes. The compliment that we received from
Marlise Jozami meant that TURN’s actions in adopting a courteous approach to each and every
individual had aroused the understanding of people as far away as South America. And wehave felt that our resonance with BIENALSUR has the potential to create a form of globalism fora new era.

misunderstanding on my part, but when these highly sensitive
people smiled, looking relaxed and in good spirits, anindescribable sense of happiness welled up in me. It instantly
dispelled my stupid question about what art can be for people
who can’t perceive artworks. When you’ve created a goodpiece, the aura around the people who visit it changes. Theirdemeanor changes, they become more relaxed, and they

become kinder to others. Everyone feels more at ease — eventhe children were carefree and laughing. Everyone understood
what I couldn’t express very well and picked up on the factthat it wasn’t a place where you had to be quiet. I hope thatin the future, art which only forms when it involves a varietyof people — people interested in art, people interested in
welfare, people not at all interested in either — progressively
grows, and that art will TURN, so that it can continue to besomething for everyone.

A tremendous open-mindedness

Continue to be something for everyone

People with severe intellectual disabilities visited A Squareof Light from time to time. It might be a self-indulgent

There were people with a wide range of disabilities. In
the conventional way of thinking, they would probably be

regarded as having some sort of “deficiency.” But there
wasn’t the slightest hint of deficiency in the air. There wasa completely natural, mutually complementary kindness, a
tremendous open-mindedness towards so-called deficiency.

In that atmosphere, my “self” was a meaningless presence,
and at the same time, it seems to me that the space was filledwith a sense of security, a feeling that everything would beforgiven. It was the first time I’d ever experienced that feeling.
December 18, 2017
From the quarterly magazine alterna

Masataka Baba
Baba founded Open A in 2003. His diverse activities include
architectural design, city planning, and writing. He also runs the realestate media outlet Real Estate, which finds and presents real estatearound Japan from a fresh perspective.

September 7, 2017
From Daily report

Emi Tomizuka
Art director, stage director and choreographer, performer, illustrator.
Nickname: Chori. She has been a TURN participant since its very
first year and at TURN FES 3, she presented the performance
artwork A Square of Light, which featured communication withoutwords.

Sometimes I get the feeling that there are words that only an artist could havespoken. While they certainly aren’t difficult words, but ones that address us gently, they’re all
the more powerful for that; these words, which gracefully draw the reader in, are invigorating
for minds that tend to toward seriousness. After TURN FES 3 closed, we asked the artists who
had taken part to contribute written pieces looking back over the festival, which we then postedon the official website in Japanese. This is an extract from the piece by Tomizuka, who’s
affectionately known as Chori.

On the final day of TURN FES 3, Baba could be found among the artists andperformers who gathered at a tiny (about 30 square meters) Chinese restaurant where the wrap
party was held. He publicly announced for the first time through the participation of TURN FES
3 that he has a severe visual impairment. After the last night of the final day, he spoke about thescene that he “saw” for an article series about “alternative spaces” published in the quarterly
magazine alterna.

Conference, but having come this far, I believe that a process
in which something more or less fails to progress is notnecessarily a bad thing. So I feel keen to try for a bit longer toconfront the everyday and the ordinary here, which I find eachtime I’m in the Kodomo Shokudo.
April 27, 2017
From Daily report

Da isuke Nagaoka
Artist. He produces video works based on pencil drawings, along withexperimental drawings that capture the moment of creation. Recently,
he has been creating works on the theme The Sphere House. Aspart of TURN, he was involved with the Kodomo Conference, andalso participated in TURN in BIENALSUR, interacting with children in
Buenos Aires who have developmental disability.

Kodomo Conference is the name of a network consisting of the three groups
presiding over the Kodomo Shokudo cafeteria for children in Tokyo’s Ota City, which was thefocus of Nagaoka’s activities in the Interactive Program. It was also planned as a meeting inwhich both children and adults could participate to discuss various themes. In addition, it was
the place where Nagaoka’s The Sphere House was discussed ahead of TURN FES 2. TURN’s
Interactive Program regards both the days on which the Kodomo Conference takes place andthose on which it does not as important parts of the process.

Expression is an essence of the relationship between you and me

A process in which something fails to progress

Recently, I’ve been experiencing minor anxiety about thefact that we didn’t make much progress holding the Kodomo

I wonder how much we can shake up our perceptions andmanner of existence by undertaking projects that involve
people in various positions. And how we can sustain thatvalue in the future. How should we think about this while

not merely imagining it, but actually working together as coconspirators, with an awareness that we are constantly in aposition of power? In that sense, I believe that expression isthe very essence of the relationship between you and me.
November 19, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 3

Yuichiro Nagatsu
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Design Science,
Faculty of Design, Kyushu University Representative Director, NonProfit Organization Institute for Dialogue and Expression Related toDiversity and Boundaries at TURN Meeting No.3, he discussed TURN
from the perspective of social inclusion.

Nagatsu worked for the office for TURN – From Land to Sea (Exploring
People’s Innate Capabilities) (2014–2015), the exhibition that triggered the birth of the name
“TURN,”and he ran Tokyo Diversion Research (2014–2017). He has now relocated to Kyushu,
where he continues his research into social inclusion and expression. Based on an awarenessthat goes beyond objective observation and maintains a strong consciousness of himself as aninterested party, he gained many insights while following the path of ideas that are constructedfrom an understanding of current circumstances and backgrounds.

experience will end in that setting. Since this is a facility run by
Itabashi City, we also have to explain the program to the cityand city residents, and obtain their agreement. Even though
We were told that the unseen process was also important, we
did have to give answers and explain. This issue has become
apparent, and now we’re being asked about it.
June 11, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 1

Nor iko Takada
Staff member at KOMONE FUKUSHIEN involved in the daily careand employment support of people with disabilities. As a person
responsible for TURN at this facility, which has been taking part in
TURN since its first year, she not only welcomes artists, but also
actively develops art programs in the facility.

Curiosity was the mainstay of the first year. In the second year we discovered
what we wanted to do and became more ambitious. And now, in the third year, there are
emerging issues about continuity and development. The organizers and project members (artists,
facility personnel at the Interactive Program locations) who came to TURN Meeting listened
attentively to Takada’s comments.

A relationships in the future

Have toWhen we’re doing activities, it’s really fun, everyone loves
Onishi, and they feel very happy. But we wonder if the

The more that interactions with facilities intensify going
forward, the more difficult it may get to TURN for the artists

themselves and for the facilities. At least it will be, for people
who believe in taking things as they come. But I think the

future nature itself of these closer relationships might lead to
noticeable subtle changes and a more modest TURN. Even
further down the line, we might succeed in creating TURN
FES with even more types of people, and an even morediverse event featuring a range of TURN approaches.
March 7, 2017
From an e-mailYasuak i Igarashi
Artist who implements collaborative expressive activities aimed attransforming local landscapes, by connecting culture and nature in
beautiful ways. He has participated in TURN since 2015, when heconducted an interaction with Atelier La Mano. In addition he spent
two months at a support facility for the people with disabilities inLima, Peru as part of BIENALSUR.

Igarashi is probably the artist with experience of the most programs on TURN.
After TURN FES 2 closed and we got feedback from project members who’d taken part. He
told us that based on his experiences he expected changes to the relationship between artists
and partner facilities on the Interactive Program going forward, and ever-richer possibilities forthe future.

TURN L AB

I became aware of the need for TURN LAB. Today is thefirst time that all the parts –the Interactive Program, TURN

FES, TURN LAND, and now TURN LAB– are finally coming
together. Language is created in the LAB, the ideas become
physical reality in the interaction, the program is introduced
to the public in FES and is made a part of daily life in LAND.
Once again I realized that it will be ideal if, through thisstructure, TURN develops into an even more enriching
program by truly taking root in the society.
November 19, 2017
From TURN Meeting No. 3

T sukasa Mori
Project Coordination Division Program Director, Arts Council Tokyo.
As Project Director, Mori is the driving force behind TURN, which is anelement of the Tokyo 2020 Cultural Olympiad.

The program of TURN Meeting No. 3, featuring James Jack and Yuichiro
Nagatsu, had a strong research element. The meeting plan was based on our wish to halt thecurrent tendency to be caught up in the project's execution, and devote some time to an indepth look at its substance; and the observations made by the two researchers were reallythought-provoking. Accordingly, in place of the usual closing remarks, Mori touched upon the
updated structure of TURN resulting from the new addition of the functions of TURN LAB.

TURN NOTE

Words on TURN 2017
March 22, 2018
Editorial Supervisor: Tsukasa Mori (Project Director of TURN, Arts Council Tokyo)
Editor: Riko Okuyama (Coordinator of TURN, Arts Council Tokyo)
Editorial Cooperator:
Arts Council Tokyo (Satsuki Asano, Maria Hata, Shoko Yamauchi, Marina Yamaguchi),the nonprofit organization Art’s Embrace (Eriko Amo, Kanako Iwanaka, Yuki Tamura, Makoto Higashino)
Design: Tetsuya Hoshino
Photo: Riko Okuyama, Tengyo Kura, Ryohei Tomita
Translation: Office Miyazaki, Inc.
Printing: Yamada Photo Process co., Ltd.

Published by:Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture）
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Tel:03-6256-8435/ Fax:03-6256-8829
Email: info@turn-project.com
URL: www.artscouncil-tokyo.jp
TURN official site: http://turn-project.com© 2018 Arts Council Tokyo
Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
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